WRITING

Caroline Love

Caroline Love is the Collin County reporter at KERA in North Texas, an NPR affiliate station and the leader of The Texas Newsroom, a public radio journalism collaboration across the state. Previously, Love covered daily news at Houston's NPR station, Houston Public Media. She holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University—with an emphasis on investigative social justice journalism—where she reported feature stories that aired on KERA and the Texas Standard. In her free time, she enjoys bullet journaling and attempting to recreate the recipes she finds on TikTok.

Ellen Heffernan

Ellie Heffernan is Mountain State Spotlight’s community watchdog reporter, based in Charleston, West Virginia.  She is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where she studied journalism and environmental studies. Ellie has written for several publications in North Carolina, including INDY Week, The Local Reporter, The UNC Institute for the Environment, and The Daily Tar Heel, and was also a MDDC Press Association Reese Cleghorn Intern at The Daily Record in Baltimore, Maryland, for which she was recognized for her reporting on the area's independent music venues. In her spare time, she likes reading, playing her clarinet or guitar, and hanging out with her cat, Franklin. She can also (kind-of) speak four languages: Macedonian, French, English, and Wolof.

Isabel Hicks

Isabel Hicks reports on the future of agriculture for the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. A graduate of Colorado College with a degree in environmental studies and journalism, Hicks was the editor-in-chief of her college paper. Throughout her journalism career, she has strived to tell stories about human relationships with the environment. Born and raised in Denver, Hicks worked on an organic farm in Carbondale, Colorado, where she became well-versed in challenges facing food systems in the Rocky Mountain West. While working on the farm Hicks also freelanced for Carbondale’s local paper, earning front-page coverage for her environmental reporting. Hicks also wrote a weekly newsletter about COVID-19 impacts to higher education, producing work that was featured in the New York Times, USA Today, and the Colorado Sun. In her free time, Hicks enjoys fostering kittens, hiking and tending to her many houseplants.

Jose Davila

Jose Davila IV covers K-12 education with a focus on Latino students and families across northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe region for KUNR, an NPR affiliate in Reno, Nevada. Prior to joining KUNR, Davila interned for The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, reporting on local businesses during the pandemic. He graduated from Yale University in 2022, where he majored in global affairs, obtained a Certificate of Advanced Language Study in Spanish, and was named a Yale Journalism Scholar. Davila was a beat reporter, a managing editor and a public editor for the Yale Daily News. He hails from Mill Valley, California, just north of San Francisco, where La Taqueria makes his favorite burrito.

Linsey Dower

Linsey Dower covers the cultural affairs beat for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaii’s largest daily newspaper, based in the state capital on the island of Oahu. Dower hails from Oahu, and is a recent graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a bachelor's degree in journalism. She has interned at the Star-Advertiser, covering state legislature, and at Hawaii Business magazine, where she reported on a variety of topics, including community-supported agriculture, local art events and the mortuary business.

Nathan Hart

Nathan Hart covers education and workforce development in Ashland, Ohio for Ashland Source, a digital news organization serving residents of Ashland County in north central Ohio. Before joining Ashland Source, Nathan worked on Capitol Hill and covered the Texas delegation of Congress for McClatchy DC and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as an intern reporter. Prior to that, Nathan worked in the Ohio statehouse as a statehouse news fellow for Cincinnati-based news station WCPO. Nathan’s journalism career started in high school where he worked on his school’s newspaper and weekly news show. Nathan has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ohio University. He is a member of Phi Betta Kappa and Kappa Tau Alpha, both academic honor societies for college students. In his free time, Nathan enjoys playing video games, performing stand-up comedy, and going to social events.

Sami Edge

Sami Edge covers higher education with a focus on community college for The Oregonian/Oregon Live, which is based in Portland. Edge has reported on public safety for The Santa Fe New Mexican, and wrote about K-12 schools in Idaho for the nonprofit newsroom, Idaho Education News. She was an American Press Institute community listening fellow, and is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where she edited the independent student paper, The Emerald. Born in Reno, Nevada, she plans to spend her career exploring the American West.

Timothy Pratt

Timothy Pratt chronicles the long-term effects of the pandemic on Georgia for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, focusing on communities—demographic and geographic—that have suffered the most and will likely face the greatest challenges moving forward. Pratt has reported for the last 25 years, in English and Spanish, from Latin America and the U.S. on immigration, education, elections and voter suppression, race and more. His work has appeared in dozens of outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, AP and Reuters. He has been a National Health Journalism Fellow, an Education Writers Association Reporting Fellow, a Marguerite Casey Foundation Fellow, among others, and the recipient of various awards, including one from the National Association of Hispanic Publications for a series in Spanish on how immigrant communities in Las Vegas experienced the 2010 World Cup.

Amy Diaz

Amy Diaz covers education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD, the state’s charter NPR affiliate, which covers 32 counties. Previously, Diaz wrote about local government and the police for Flint Beat, a hyperlocal news site in Flint, Michigan, and her work won awards from the Michigan Press Association. Diaz got her start in journalism in elementary school, writing the scripts for the morning news. Holding a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, where she was a staff writer for the college paper, Diaz has interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times.

Casey Murray

Casey Murray is a data reporter covering health and criminal justice at The Sacramento Observer, which serves the Black community in Sacramento, California and beyond. Previously, she covered breaking news and helped to develop podcasts at KSHB, an NBC affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri. As a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Murray covered health and did newscasts for KBIA, an NPR affiliate, reported for the Missouri Broadcasters Association, and hosted an entrepreneurship podcast for Missouri Business Alert. She has interned at Politico Europe, where she managed social media platforms and assisted with data projects.